Home for the Holidays
by nannygirl
Summary: When Mike and Gloria and Stephanie all make plans to spend Christmas away from home it looks like Christmas at 704 Hauser will be a quiet one this year. Or will it? A Christmas story full of presents, pasts, and a pinch of the future!
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. I do not own All in the Family or any of its characters. I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note:** Hello everyone! How are you all? Hope you're doing well! As Mr. A Bunker once said, 'The Christmas season is once again at our throat' but of course I hope that you all are having a good holiday season and are having fun getting ready for it all! And as a way to help get you and me into the Christmas mood I've decided to post up this AITF Christmas story! It's actually one I wrote years ago but I've polished it up and hopefully it makes for a good story. Now it's not a story with a groundbreaking/serious sort of storyline that AITF's Christmas episodes usually had (they had some of my all time favorite Christmas episodes but thinking over it now they're not as joyful and happy as the other Christmas special—but nothing bad about that!) anyways, even though it may not have that All in the Family element I do hope that the story does have that wonderful family feeling you got when you watched the show. There's not too much needed background to know about this story but it takes place sometime in the mid 80s. Archie Bunker's Place did not happen—so that means you know what didn't happen—Mike and Gloria moved back next door and have two children now Joey and Gracie. And Stephanie still lives there at the Bunkers. That's about it so lets' get on with the story shall we? But before we do I just want to say thank you so very much for stopping by to read this story—it's one I really hold close to my heart—if you have the chance to leave and lemme know what you think it would be very much appreciated. Thanks again! Hope you like! And please, Enjoy!_

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**Home for the Holidays**

Archie Bunker sat in his chair, peacefully reading his paper when there came a knock at the door. Not wanting to answer it, he stayed in his seat. A second or two after the one knock the doorbell rang a quick but loud ring. He now knew who it was.

"Come on in Edith the coast is clear!" he shouted from his seat turning only his head towards the door.

A few seconds later the door opened to reveal a smiling Edith with bags of presents in her arms—some wrapped and some not. "Hello Arrrchie!" she said before quickly jogging to her husband to give him a quick peck on the lips. Before he could respond she was out the door and onto the porch bringing in more of the bags of presents. Archie stood up and walked over to the door.

"Ah jeeze, just looking at these is giving my wallet a heart attack." Archie said closing front door as his wife brought in the last bag

Edith gave a small laugh as she took off her hat and coat, "Oh my there was so many people out there in all them stores."

"So youse bought everything, to make sure no one else would get it?"

Edith smiled. "No." she said taking a seat in her chair, Archie followed and then took a seat in his own throne. "Oh my feet hurt so much." She said slipping off her shoes.

Archie watched his wife and shook his head, "Well it's your own fault there Edith." He began, "Every year youse do this to yourself, going around shopping for people youse don't even know."

"Oh but Archie they're for the needy, and they ain't all for them. I got some presents for the family in there too." Edith argued.

"That's another thing; you're going around buying all kinds of stuff on the family when youse should be spending it on yours truly." Archie told her and she smiled.

"Don't worry I have." She said "Oh!" she exclaimed getting up onto her bare feet.

"Where are youse going now?!" questioned Archie.

"I gotta go hide the gifts." Edith said getting a bag of the unwrapped gifts and then heading upstairs.

"Edith…" Archie called as he followed her with another bag in his arms, figuring he should help her if he wanted a good present this year. He followed her into their bedroom, and by the time he got there she was already hiding the presents in all sorts of places. Some in dwarves, some under the bed, in the closet, behind the curtains, the hope chest and everywhere else possible.

Archie frowned at the scene, "Edith this is Christmas not an Easter egg hunt!"

"I know." Edith said hiding the last present that was in her bag, in the drawer of her nightstand. "But this way if anyone finds some presents, they won't find them all."

"Ah come on, just put 'em all in the chest here." Archie told her opening the chest.

"Oh no. Cause last year _someone_ found his present there." His wife reminded him.

Archie raised an eyebrow, "The Meathead was snooping around in our bedroom?"

Edith gave him a look that seemed to say, 'You know who I'm talking about.'

"Wha's with the look there?"

Edith waved it off, as she got started on the bag Archie held in his arms. "Oh and I found that last ting on Stephy's Christmas list, look." She then handed him a hexagon shaped packaging that had hat looked like a multicolored box, made up of smaller squares, inside.

Archie scowled at the object, "Youse bought the kid a box?

"No, it's a Rubiks Cube." Edith answered with a smile.

"I don't care who's cube it is." He barked back, still glaring at the present for his niece, "How much did you pay for it?"

Hiding another present behind the bedroom's window curtain, she shrugged, "Oh just about twenty dollars or so."

"Twenty dollars? On a box?" Archie asked disbelief.

"Oh no, Archie." Edith shook her head and for a second Archie believed he had heard wrong, that is until she continued, "It's a cube."

Hearing his wife's words, Archie dropped his head to where his chin was tucked into his neck; and the minute he did this action the front door was heard closing.

"Aunt Edith I'm home!" Stephanie called from downstairs.

Edith's eyes showed shock as Archie's head shot up.

"Oh what'll we do with the rest of the presents?" Edith asked as she worried looked around the gift filled room.

"Here we'll put 'em in the closet and if they find 'em we'll keep 'em for ourselves." Archie explained as he placed the shopping bag in the closet and closed the door. The couple then went down the stairs to greet their niece, and make sure she wasn't taking a peak at any of the already wrapped presents under the tree.

Luckily Edith made it down before Stephanie could finish hanging up her coat, with Archie a few steps behind her.

"Oh hello Stephy." Edith greeted kissing her quickly.

"Hi Aunt Edith." She said taking a seat in her uncle's chair not noticing Archie come down the stairs.

"How was school?" Edith asked taking a seat in her own chair.

"Great! It's so good to be out for vacation." Stephy said relaxing in her seat, Archie frowned.

"Vacation? Christmas is still six days away." Archie stated "What are they doing letting youse out already?"

Stephanie shrugged, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Jeeze now she's asking for a horse!" Archie groaned, "Out of the chair."

Stephanie did as she was told and then watched her uncle take a seat, only to jump onto his lap.

Archie growled, "You know most girls would think they're too old for this here."

Stephanie looked at Archie, "I've seen Aunt Edith do it."

Archie looked at his wife and frowned, "See what kinda example you're setting here?"

Edith smiled as she shook her head, "Did your friends like the cookies you made them?" she asked changing the subject.

"Yeah. They loved them."

"That's good."

"What about youse?" Archie questioned, "Youse getting anything?"

"Yup."

"Anything good?"

Stephanie smiled, "Oh yeah, lots of it, but the best one came from Jenny O'Brien."

"Oh?" her aunt asked.

"Yeah, she invited me to go skiing with her and her family in Vermont." She told them

"Oh that sounds like fun…"

"On Christmas." Stephanie finished and her 'parents' faces dropped.

"On Christmas?" Edith asked not believing she'd heard right.

"Yeah. Can I go?" she asked hopefully.

"Oh I don't know Stephy." Edith began, "We've always spent Christmas together…"

"Course we have!" Archie exclaimed "And that's how we're gonna keep spending it. After all who knows how many Christmases the two of us have got left." he reminded his niece, "Edith two or three. Me maybe five or six."

Edith shook her head and Stephanie could tell she was going to have a hard time convincing the two so she began to them more of the details.

"We'd be leaving Christmas Eve morning and I'll be back three days after Christmas." She told them, "I'll be home for Hanukkah, New Years… and Kwanza."

"Ah, now you're just making holidays up." Archie told her.

"Please Aunt Edith." Stephanie pleaded, she knew if she got her to agree then getting Archie to say 'yes' would be easy.

"What's the big deal about going to the Vermont? All they got is deers which means youse gotta watch everywhere youse step." Archie said

Stephy shrugged, "Well we haven't gone out of town in a long time…"

"What are youse talking about? We used to go to California all the time!" Archie proclaimed.

"Yeah, but we haven't been back there in _forever_!"

Archie frowned, "Why would we? Gloria and the Meathead are living next door. Who you gonna visit, the strangers that live in their condo now?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes, she decided to take another route, "There's skiing."

"Youse don't know how to ski."

"Then I could learn!"

"Fine." Archie said, "Youse wanna learn to ski, alright I'll get youse two pieces of wood and set youse up on the roof."

"Oh no Archie don't do that." Edith said breaking away from her thoughts.

Stephanie looked away from her uncle and over at Edith, "So can I go?" silence, "It won't cost you a lot, only a few dollars for the skies. I've got the clothes and the O'Brien's own the cabin."

Edith continued to think.

"I promise to call you first thing Christmas morning."

Edith looked at his niece she gave a short smile, "As long as it's ok with Archie."

Quickly Stephanie looked at her uncle with puppy dog eyes. "Pwease!"

Archie frowned, "Youse sure you've got a big enough jacket?"

A smile sprung to Stephanie's face knowing that those words meant 'yes'

"Oh thank you!" she exclaimed giving each one of them a kiss and a hug before heading upstairs. "I'm gonna go call Jenny and tell her the good news! Thank you!"

And then she was gone.

"That means we're keeping one of your gifts for ourselves!" Archie called after her.

Edith sighed and her husband groaned.

"Ah come on, don't start that Edith, youse were the one who gave the first okay!" he shouted.

"Oh I know." Edith said nodding, "It's just she's growing up so fast."

"Yeah." Archie agreed, "Soon she'll be marrying her own meathead."

"At least we still got Joey and Gracie." Edith said with a smile as she thought about her two young grandchildren.

Then as if on cue a young, blonde haired, boy burst through the front door, shutting it behind him.

"Grandma!" he exclaimed happily as he ran into Edith's arms.

"Where does he get that from?" Archie asked

"Hi Ma, Hi Arch." Mike greeted as he and Gloria, who held their three year old daughter in her arms, came through the door.

"Never mind." Archie said with a wave of his hand as his grandson moved beside him.

Edith stood up and walked over to the couple, "Oh hi Gracie!" Edith greeted as her daughter handed the three year old to her grandmother. "What are youse doing here?" she asked her still smiling.

"Yeah, your noses must be really good, Edith ain't even started on dinner yet." Archie said as the family made their way into the sitting area. Edith back in her chair, Mike and Gloria on the sofa, and the grandchildren each found a seat on the laps of a grandparent.

"Joey." Gloria said and the young boy instantly hit his grandfather's arm.

Archie's eyes widened as he looked at the couple. Mike shrugged, "You told _her_ not hit you anymore."

Archie frowned but his daughter never saw it and instead started to speak in a somewhat nervous tone.

"Actually Ma, Daddy, we came over to ask you an important question."

"Dealing with Christmas." Mike added.

"Ah jeeze." Archie growled, "Lemme stop youse now cause I ain't giving no sizes sos the two of youse can get us the whadaya call mismatched pajamas."

"Oh I think that would be cute." Edith joyfully said aloud and Archie look over at her, his scowl still in place.

"Wha, youse in pants or me in a dress?"

Edith gave a small laugh before turning her attention back to Gloria who had begun to speak again.

"Um…we…you see…um…Michael has something to ask you!" She quickly finished, losing her nerve and shoving her husband forward a bit.

Mike shook his head, "Gloria no they're you parents…" he protested.

Not liking the argument he was making, mostly because she couldn't think of a verbal response to it, Gloria then grabbed the hand he was using to gesture in the air and forcefully pulled his fingers apart.

"Ahh!" He threw his head back and yelped in pain, "We're gonna spend Christmas with Al and Trudy!"

Gloria let go and Mike examined his hand, meanwhile The Bunkers both had looks of confusion on their faces.

"Wha happened to the question?" Archie asked his wife but she remained silent.

Gloria could tell her parents weren't on board with the plan and so she began to explain, "You see we ran into Al and Trudy a couple of weeks ago. We got to talking and Joey and Angie really hit it off with their kids…and we just thought it would be fun if we spent Christmas with them at their house."

Edith's face suddenly brightened, "But we'll be able to spend Christmas morning together though, right?"

The younger couple's faces dropped, they didn't like disappointing Edith.

"No ma." Mike solemnly replied. "Al and Trudy live in New Jersey, and we thought it would be nice to celebrate Christmas Eve there so the kids could wake up and open their presents together."

Archie's frown only seemed to get deeper with each newer word he heard—especially when they came out of his son-in-law's mouth, "Listen to the atheist, trying to ruin two of the most religious days of the year."

Looking at Archie with a blank stare Mike was about to respond to his comment when his wife spoke over him as she talked to her mother.

"Ma, I hope you're not too upset." Gloria said meaning it very much.

"Oh no." Edith said trying to sound happy, "It's just different is all. Us all spending Christmas apart."

"But you've still got Stephy here." The blonde woman quickly pointed out.

"The kid's going skiing." Archie said not even trying to hide how upset he was.

Gloria's heart broke some at this new piece of information. She knew that when she and Michael made plans to spend Christmas with their friends that it meant spending Christmas away from her parents but she never could have guessed it would have meant making her parents spend Christmas alone.

"Oh Ma, we're sorry, if we would have known we wouldn't have agreed to this at all." Mike spoke for both him and his wife, hoping to help the situation even if only a tiny bit.

"Sure youse would." Archie said dismissing any tiny bit that may have started to started to look better, "Youse just woulda tried to tell us before the kid did."

Mike rolled his eyes and Gloria watched her mother who did look a bit sad. "Ma are you…"

"Oh don't worry Gloria, we'll be fine." Edith tried to sound assuring before looking down at her watch, "Oh my, I better get started on dinner. Would you like to join us?"

"Sure!" Mike called out not even a second after Edith asked.

"Do you need any help?" Gloria asked Edith who had placed Gracie on the floor and was now making her way to the kitchen.

"Oh no thank you Gloria. Not now." Edith told her before disappearing behind the door. Archie watched his wife and knew she may have seemed like she didn't mind but he knew she—like himself—was really not ok with any of this.

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_**Author's Note:** Soo what did you think? Good? Bad? Wanna read more? Lemme know in a review!_

_This story is actually already complete but do still need to edit some stuff however I haven't figured out what the update schedule will be for this story. if you have any suggestions lemme know! Right now I'm think about posting a new chapter every Monday and Friday. What do you think?_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have a nice day, and remember only 22 more days till Christmas!_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: **I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **Hello everyone! How are you all doing? Hope you're doing well and have had a nice week! Today I have for you the next chapter of "Home for the Holidays" I'm so very glad that you all are not only interested in the story but are enjoying it too! our reviews were so very sweet! Thank you! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter! Sorry it's a bit shorter than the last but it does have two scenes this time. Okay I'll end my AN now before I start to ramble. Thanks once more for everything! Please review if you can! Hope you all like this chapter! And please, Enjoy!_

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At a bar not so far away from the Bunker Home Barney Hefner and Harry Snowden were sitting at a small table a bottle of whiskey beside them with two shot glasses, coins and a glass bowl that sat in the middle of the table. Harry bounced a coin into the bowl. "Drink." He told Barney.

Barney took the shot just as the namesake of the bar came in.

"What the hell is this?" Archie asked, "Playing quarters on the job."

"We ain't got no customers 'side Barney." Harry protested.

"Yeah and I was bored." Barney added with a nod causing Archie to roll his eyes.

"Hey what are youse doing here anyways?" Harry asked his partner, "You ain't supposed to come in till late tonight."

"Yeah well I couldn't stay at the house." He told them.

"'Bout time Edith kicked you out." Harry said with a chortle.

"Yeah." Barney agreed joining in on the laugh, "What'd you do?"

"I didn't do nothing!" Archie protested as he poured himself a beer, "It's the family. They're gonna drive me crazy!"

Harry made another shot into the bowl and made Barney drink another shot.

"What happened?" Barney asked Archie before taking his drink.

"The kid wants to go skiing, on Christmas, with one of her school friends." Archie explained.

"And now she bugging you till you say she can go?" Harry guessed interrupting Archie's story.

Giving a dismissive hand wave, Archie took a seat at the table with his friends, "Nah Edith gave her the 'okay' already."

"Then what's the problem?" Barney questioned

"Lemme finish huh Barn?" Archie barked loudly before exhaling a heavy sigh and going on, "We gave her the ok 'fore Gloria and the Meathead told us they was gonna spend Christmas with Sal and Ruby."

The two other men exchanged confused looks—something told them Archie had once again mixed up some names. Not giving it much thought though, Barney grabbed a coin and bounced it on the table top but it didn't make it into the bowl.

"Boy Edith must be crushed huh?" asked Harry.

"Yeah well, she's keeping it to herself, while the kids are there." Archie explained, "Don't want them to see her upset. So she's waiting till they leave sos then she can ramble on about it to me."

Barney tried again to make the coin into the bowl, but failed. "So you told her you were going to work?"

"'Course not!" exclaimed Archie in a quick outburst that quickly settled when he added, "I didn't tell her nothing."

Harry made another shot and once again made Barney drink.

"Say Arch, maybe you and Edith should just skip Christmas." He suggested.

Archie's face dropped, "What are youse talking about? Skip Christmas? One of the best days of the year, it's got food, a good Christian meaning, and a buncha gifts. Jeeze _one_ day I send the Meathead over to help youse and already he's got you brainsqwashed."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm just saying cause you'll be spending alotta money on just the two of youse. Not going all out on Christmas is the best way to save a few bucks. Youse could go to Florida with the money you save!"

Archie began to think, "Yeah?" he then shook his head, "Nah, Edith would never go for it. She loves Christmas too much. If it were up to her we'd celebrate it once a month. 'Sides she's already done most of the shopping."

"You know who used to do her holiday shopping really early?" Barney asked changing the subject. Neither of the men answered because they knew were this was going, and the sad exhale of air Barney gave told them how correct they were even before he gave is answer, "Blanche. It was mostly for herself but still."

"Aww jeeze…" Harry and Archie both growled in annoyance "Not this again."

Barney looked down at the empty shot glass, "Blanche always wanted to spend Christmas with just the two of us." He said aloud, "But I never really put any thought into it, you know? We had a chance to do it one year but it came and went. And then…so did Blanche."

Harry and Archie looked at each other a bit frustrated. Sure they felt bad for their friend but there was a limit and when the holidays came Barney always seemed to be up past the limit.

"Maybe, if we'd spent that Christmas together she wouldn't have left." Barney thought out loud, looking close to bursting into tears.

"Ah come on Barn." Harry said, "The only way you coulda stopped Blanche from leaving was by making that roach problem of yours go away without an exterminator."

Barney nodded sadly, "Yeah."

"That's it. I got it!" Archie said sounding a bit excited.

"You got roach problem too?'

Archie frowned, "Not that youse dumbbell. I gotta go home." He announced before finishing his beer as his two friends watched in confusion. "I'll see youse tomorrow."

Harry frowned, "What are you talking about? You're supposed to come in tonight!"

"Yeah. I came in tonight and now I'm out." He said nonchalantly as he stood up bouncing a coin and making it into the bowl. "Harry drink."

Harry frowned and Barney smiled.

"Me?! Why?"

Archie looked at his business partner "Cause the last time this guy got drunk, he acted like his dog and relived himself on my porch. Luckily it came out through the other end."

Harry's face quitted with disgust, as Archie left out the door and Barney gave a sheepish grin.

0o0o0o

When Archie got home, his daughter and her family had already left back to their own homes, Stephanie was already in bed and Edith had already finished washing the dishes and picking up. Archie found his wife in their room, sitting on one of the chairs by the window, already in her nightgown and blue robe wrapping up some of the newly bought presents.

"Hiya Edith."

Edith looked up, "Oh Archie, I thought youse went to work."

"Yeah, I did but Harry was having such a good time there, I figured I'd let him stay and I'd just come in tomorrow." Archie replied with a smirk.

"Oh that was nice of you." Edith said while she tied a ribbon on a wrapped box.

Archie watched his wife and then made his way to the chair opposite of Edith's, he took a seat. "Whatda you doin'?"

"I'm wrapping one of the gifts we're giving Joey for Christmas." She told him smiling and he frowned

"Why?"

"I thought they could take the presents with them so they can open 'em on Christmas morning. And hopefully they'll take pictures sos we'll still be able to see how their faces lighted up." Edith explained sounding sadder near the end.

Archie noticed the tone change as he looked at his wife, "How you doing?"

"Oh I'm fine." She said smiling

"I mean with the kids not spending Christmas with us."

"Oh…" not being able to come up with an answer Edith sighed as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Hey," Archie began trying to lighten the mood, "what would youse say if I told youse, that I had the prefect answer to this here problem?"

Edith's eyes filled with hope , "Oh Archie, really?"

"Yeah, now listen to this here, ready?" he asked having scooted closer to the edge of his seat, Edith continued to grin and nodded her head excitedly and Archie's own grin broke out as he shared his solution, "We skip Christmas!"

With just those three words Edith's smile dropped completely in just that one second.

"What?"

"Sure it'll be great," Archie told her before elaborating, "We'll return the gifts we bought… 'cept for the ones we bought each other, no reason for punishing us. Then we get that there refunded money and buy tickets for a cruise!"

"Archie, we can't skip Christmas." Edith protested, "I can't return all them gifts. And I don't wanna spend Christmas on a boat."

"It ain't a boat it's a ship Edith, _a ship_." Archie firmly told her, "And wha's the big deal? Don't youse know that we spend so much money during Christmas that if we didn't celebrate it, we could go on two cruises?" he asked lifting up two fingers as he tried to convince his wife.

She only shook her head back and forth, "No, Archie, I can't. Christmas already won't be the same without the kids here, I don't wanna change nothing more."

"Wha else is changing? Everything'll be the same 'cept on a boat!"

"What about my Christmas coffee in bed?" Edith asked referring to a tradition Archie had started since Gloria was born.

Archie shrugged "If worse comes, I'll have the captain stop by Africa to get some of them coffee beans."

Edith was still not convinced. Archie sighed, he didn't think Plan A would work, but he had to give it a shot. "Alright," he sighed and then began explaining Plan B "Look hows about we spend Christmas here with just the two of us here huh? Sorta like a honeymoon Christmas?"

Slowly Edith's smile started to reappear.

"That's right." Archie said nodding with his eyes closed for a few seconds, "I'll close up the bar…well I'll make sure Harry runs it the whole day, and I'll stay here with youse bringing youse all the coffee in bed youse want. After all we gotta celebrate one Christmas alone 'fore one of us croaks."

"Ooohhh Arrrchie!" Edith said throwing her arms around him and placing kisses over his face; though she still wished her whole family could celebrate the holiday together she was against the idea of having a cozy little Christmas alone with her husband.

Putting his hands on her arms, Archie tried to halt her actions as pulled away slightly, "Edith, Edith, Edith. Why don't youse save some of this here for Christmas and finish up with the gifts?"

"Alright." Edith replied with a slight laugh before sitting back down.

"Youse want me to bring over the rest of the gifts that need wrapping?" Archie offered and then threw in a line that he hoped sounded innocent enough. "That is if none of them belong to me. I sure don't wanna see none of my gifts 'fore Christmas."

"Oh no, yours are all under the tree." Edith told him and Archie raised an eyebrow.

"Well I think I'll go get the rest of them gifts from downstairs." Archie announced before exiting the bedroom.

"Alright!" Edith called after him as she added another ribbon to another gift. A few seconds into it she realized that all unwrapped presents were the closet, and Archie's presents were downstairs.

She swiftly leapt on to her feet, "Oh no Arrrchie!" Edith cried out as she ran out the room hoping she got to Archie before he opened all of his gifts.

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_**Author's Note: **And there you have it Chapter 2 of "Home for the Holidays" Hope you liked!_

_Gonna go ahead and try to follow that schedule I mentioned in the first chapter, maybe skipping a day if I get really busy or throwing in a surprise chapter too. Who know!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have a nice day, and remember only 18 more days till Christmas! _


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: **I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **Hello everyone! How are you all? Hope you're doing well! I am so so terribly sorry fro not updating at all last week. It was finals and I sorta had to cut back on my fanfic time, it was hard but I think it paid off :D But it did put me behind on this story but I am gonna make it up to you all! First with this new chapter and next with an extra day of updates. How's Monday, Wednesday, and Friday work for you all? Maybe a weekend too? Really wanna have this story completed by Christmas or Christmas eve or maybe even a few days after. Also before we get started on the chapter I just want to say thank you so very much to you wonderful readers who give such great encouragement! It really means a lot! Thank you! Hope you like this chapter. A little short but we're getting to the big stuff soon! Again thanks for everything, please review if you can, hope you like, and please, Enjoy!_

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"Stephy, you better hurry up the O'Brien's will be here any minute!" Edith shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

It was the morning of Christmas Eve and Stephanie was getting ready to leave for her skiing trip, though Edith couldn't say she was one hundred percent happy about it, she was looking on the bright side of being able to spend Christmas alone with her husband for the first time since their first Christmas as a married couple, although then she had been four months along with Gloria.

"I'm coming!" Stephanie said as she bounced down the stairs already wearing her biggest jacket and warmest clothes along with her backpack and second suitcase.

"Oh my, you look just perfect for a trip to a ski cabin." Edith told her niece and she smiled.

"I thought she was going to Hawaii." Archie, who was sitting at the dining room table eating his lunch, said.

"Ha, ha, ha." Stephanie said in the same sarcastic tone Archie had just used.

"Well youse got everything? Asked Archie

"Everything but the money for the plane ticket you owe Mr. O'Brien." Stephanie informed him.

"Jeeze." Archie groaned as he pulled out his wallet and then the dollar bills. "How come youse didn't mention this when youse was trying to get us to say ok, in the beginning?"

"Cause I knew you wouldn't give me the okay." She simply said.

"Here." Archie handed her the money and she began to count it.

"You're missing a dollar." Stephanie informed him

Archie frowned, "What are youse talking about?"

"You're missing ninety-two cents, if you give them a dollar they'll give you the change."

"Oh no!" Archie shook his head, "Edith give the kid ninety-two cents. Them people don't give change."

Edith grabbed her coin purse and handed Stephy the money, "There you go." Right after a car horn went off.

"That's them!" Stephanie exclaimed as she ran towards the front porch.

"My, that was fast." Edith said as she and Archie followed.

"Edith, they live three houses down, how long'd you think it take them? Three hours?"

"Bye Aunt Edith, bye Uncle Archie." Stephanie said quickly before kissing them both of the cheek and then running to the car.

"Bye kiddo." Archie simply said as he waved her off.

Meanwhile Edith had a bit more to say. "Bye Stephy! Be careful, and be on your best behavior, and don't get lost!"

Archie rolled his eyes at the words his wife called out.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien, Merry Christmas!" Edith shouted to them.

"It ain't Christmas yet." Archie reminded

"Oh right…Merry Christmas Eve!"

The two waved a few more times and then went back inside as the car drove off.

"Well Edith," Archie said once they were alone, "One down and only four more to go."

Edith grinned as a thought entered her mind, "Oh I better make sure I have everything for tomorrow's Christmas dinner."

"Wha do youse mean everything?" Archie asked as he followed his wife into the kitchen, "It's just gonna be the two of us, we don't need no big turkey."

"I know, that's why I bought a small one, and everything else is all in sizes made just for two." Edith said cheerfully think about how romantic it was.

"Yeah?" Archie asked with something else on his mind, "How much did you save?"

"Oh fifteen maybe twenty five dollars." She informed him.

"Jeeze, I shoulda thought of this years ago." He said aloud causing his wife to giggle as she continued to check the recently purchased groceries laid out on the counter.

"Grandma!" a young boy's voice called as he entered the kitchen, busting the backdoor open and causing it crash directly against his grandpa's back.

After catching his balance and rubbing his injured back, Archie groaned, "Jeeze I hope one of the gifts youse bought me is a lock, Edith."

Edith laughed as she knew he was joking, turned to the blonde boy, "Hello Joey," she said kissing the top of his head, "What are youse doing over here?"

"Yeah? Youse finally take my advice on running away from home and living over here?" Archie asked taking a seat at the table beside his grandson.

Joey shook his head as he grabbed another one of his grandma's homemade cookies, "Mommy said to tell you goodbye cuz we're leaving."

As Edith's expression became sadder, Archie's became angrier. "Jeeze listen to our messenger here. Sent here sos we wouldn't shoot."

"I didn't say that." Gloria announced as she and Gracie came through the backdoor, "I said let's get ready to go to Grandpa and Grandma's house so we can say goodbye before we leave."

"Did I hear something?" Archie asked and Gloria's face dropped into a sad, ready to cry, expression.

"Oh Archie, please don't it's Christmas." Edith said while holding her granddaughter in her arms.

"Oh alright, alright." Archie began, "Even though they ain't gonna celebrate it with their family _the way this holiday is supposed to be celebrated_, I'll stop."

Knowing the guilt her father as trying to lay on her and not liking it one bit, Gloria hit her father's arm.

"Ow!" he exclaimed getting no attention.

"Well we just came over for a little bit, we really better get going." Gloria said and her mother passed Gracie back to her. "Gracie, you wanna say Merry Christmas to Granma and Granpa?"

"Erry ismas!" the little girl happily said earning her a few laughs.

"Oh erry ismas to you too, Gracie." Edith said before kissing her cheek. As the two women cooed over the young girl Archie couldn't help but smile as he watched the scene before him, only to have it drop as a manly voice called form outside.

"Gloria, kids, come on we gotta go!" Mike called before walking through the door disrupting the scene. "Traffic's gonna be even worse with all the snow."

"Jeeze, leave it to youse to break up a Camack moment." Archie said and both women frowned, as if telling him once more '_Don't, it's Christmas._' "Don't be looking at me like that, no holiday is gonna change the way I treat this guy."

Mike shook his head and sighed, "Have a Merry Christmas Arch."

"Yeah, youse to Meathead." Archie relied, "Unless youse atheists prefer to call it something like…_Mas_."

Mike's frown increased as he looked at his father-in-law, he shook it off as he turned to Edith who had been wishing Gloria a Merry Christmas.

"Oh, have a Merry Christmas Mike!" Edith said throwing her arms around him.

"Thanks Ma, you too. And I'm sorry."

Edith looked confused, "For what?"

"For leaving you here to spend Christmas alone with Archie."

Everyone but Archie seemed to smile at Mikes words, as they all headed out the kitchen. "What does he mean by that?" he asked but was ignored.

"Are you sure you don't wanna take more cookies?" Edith asked.

"No thanks Ma, we've already got eight boxes, anymore and it'll weigh the car down and we're already gonna be driving at a slow pace because of the snow." Gloria replied.

"Did you get all the presents?" Edith questioned.

"Loaded them all in the car." Mike replied.

"We even left yours and Daddy's." Gloria informed her mother.

"Really?" Archie raised an eyebrow as he looked over at the tree, "I don't see no big ones."

While Mike shook his head, Gloria moved hers skywards after hearing Archie's words.

"Come on son, let's go." Mike said before he helped lead his family outside and into the rented car as his in-laws remained on the porch.

"Bye! Have Fun! Don't forget to leave Santa some cookies!" Edith shouted as she waved.

"Yeah, and Joe hit your dad with a snowball for me, will ya?" were the words Archie used, Joey gave a thumbs up from inside the vehicle.

After a few more waves the car took off and Archie and Edith returned inside. They each smiled some as they realized they had the house to themselves. Archie smirked as he grabbed a hold of his wife and took her in his arms, and then he began to sway with her.

"Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful and since we're all _alone_ let it snow…"

"Let it snoooww, let it snoooww!" Edith soon joined in her husband's song, singing in her unique way that always made Archie cringe just a bit.

This time was no different but once she'd finished the two lines he'd managed to return the smile she was sending his way.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **And there you go! Chapter 3 of "Home for the Holidays" Hope you liked!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have a nice day and remember only 8 more days till Christmas!_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hello everyone! How are you all? Hope you're doing good! Sorry I didn't get to update yesterday, was kinda busy day and not too much time spent on the computer, but instead of making you abit another day I've got the new chapter for you today! I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks so much once more for all the wonderful reviews and incredible support, it really means so very much! Not much to say today so just thanks again, please review if you can, hope you like, and please, Enjoy!_

* * *

Later that evening Archie and Edith were still dancing in their living room, only now a bit slower.

"See ain't this nice?" Archie asked as he held his wife close to him, he felt her nod, "No kids, just the two of us. Think about it. Tomorrow we won't have to get up at the crack of dawn by a jumping kid in our bed wanting to open presents, no wrapping paper being thrown all over the place, not even the leaving the cookies out sos the roaches can strike with their comeback." He grinned at the thought.

Meanwhile, Edith didn't look so happy in fact she was already close to tears.

Archie frowned, "Why ain't you saying nothin?" he turned to look at her and groaned when he saw the tears. "Wha are youse bawling for?"

"Oh," Edith said breaking the embrace and wiping her eyes, "with you saying all them thing we ain't gonna have to do tomorrow, makes me miss the kids even more."

"Ah…"Archie struggled, "Edith don't be thinkin about them. Hey remember the two of us are gonna have that there made from two dinner, and I'm going to church with youse, and youse are still getting that coffee in bed."

Edith gave a small smile. "Oh Archie."

"There, you goes." Archie said before pulling her into his arms again. They danced in silence until the loud buzz of the doorbell filled the room.

Pulling away some, Edith frowned at the door "Archie there's someone at the door."

"So?"

"Who could be out now, on Christmas Eve?" Edith wondered aloud.

"Who cares." Archie stated keeping is hold on his wife to stop her from answering the door.

"Maybe it's carolers."

"I don't hear no singing." Again he tried.

"Oh, maybe it's someone asking for donations." Edith said happily.

"Lock the door." Archie instructed and Edith shook her head as she finally escaped his grip and headed to the door, just as it rang again.

"Edith wait!" Archie shouted and she looked over at him "What if it's the Grinch? Trying to steal Christmas."

Edith gave a small smile, "It's won't take long Archie." She told him before opening the door revealing four figures. She gasped casing Archie to look over and he sighed.

"Ah jeeze."

"Surprise." Gloria said in an almost questioning tone, as she and her family stood on the porch in front of her parents.

At first Edith was so shocked she was speechless, but not two seconds later she was welcoming the family with open arms. "Oh Gloria, Mike! What are you doing here? I thought you would have been in New Jersey by now."

The family walked into the house.

"Oh Ma, it's terrible outside." Gloria explained.

"It's snowing!" Joey said happily.

"Yeah, it's snowing hard." Mike informed, "The bridges have all been closed and traffic was terrible coming back home." He finished putting his feet up on the coffee table as he tried to relax.

Archie frowned, not believing his eyes. Wasn't he just slow dancing with his wife? "Dogs off the table!" he growled and Mike sighed before doing what he was told.

Gloria looked at her parents, "So can we spend Christmas with you?"

"N…"

"Oh of course!" Edith cried, "Our door is always open to you whenever you need us. You should know that by now."

Everyone seemed to smile except Archie.

"No it ain't. It's Christmas Eve, everything's closed and is suppose to stay closed, and if so fatso our door stays closed." Archie stated.

Mike frowned, "Everything's closed?"

"Sure." Archie said as if it were obvious, "You got the stores, the restaurants, the movies. It's in the bible there! Christmas is supposed to be the most subbath day of the year."

"What about the other religions, the ones who don't celebrate Christmas?" Mike asked

"Doesn't matter if they close or not, if thy ain't celebrating the Lord's son there, they ain't going to heaven anyways."

"Oh come on Arch that's ridiculous if…" and soon an argument broke out as the wives tried to stop them.

"Oh please don't fight, not on Christmas Eve." Edith begged, the argument subsided for a moment.

"Listen, the two of youse was all ready to spend Christmas away from us, sos we got ready to spend it without youse. Now you wanna waltz right back into the plans? No way. I'm following God's words and keeping my home closed" Archie declared.

Edith frowned, "But Archie not everything stayed closed, they just didn't have enough room. But we do, just like the manger where Jesus was born."

Archie's frown increased, "This ain't no manger. Do youse see any cows?"

0o0o0o

Archie Bunker sat in his chair trying to watch the Christmas movie that was on TV, but the crunching sound coming from his son-in-law ,who was sitting Edith's chair, made it impossible. Slowly he looked over at Michael and watched him until Mike felt his eyes on him and turned to look at him.

"What?" he asked his mouth half full.

"Do youse have to eat so loud?"

Mike frowned, "No." he simply told him, "I just do it to annoy you."

Archie frowned for awhile and then raised his eyebrows as he pointed at him. "I knew it!"

Michael rolled his eyes and couldn't respond because his children came bounding down the stairs.

"Dad, Dad, Dad!" Joey called as he walked ahead of a crying Gracie.

"Jeeze, the poor kid must of found out youse really are her father." Archie told Mike "Hey there, lil one. Wha happened?" he asked his granddaughter pulling her on to his lap.

"Santa not coming." She told him sadly.

"Dad, Santa thinks we're going to Uncle Al's. He doesn't know we're gonna be at Grandpa and Grandma's." Joey said explaining the reason behind the statement just made by his sister.

It didn't take long for Mike to find a cover up, "Um sure he does. Santa's watching you until he drops off the gifts your house. So he'll know exactly where you are on Christmas night."

"Really?" Gracie asked.

"Sure," Archie began "and whenever a Meathead plans an outta town trip, Santa always prepares for it not to happen." He finished with a smirk and Mike frowned.

Suddenly Edith came through the kitchen door, "Archie I'll be right back, I gotta run to the store." She said before putting on her coat.

"Wha?"

"Ma, you're gonna go now?" Mike asked in disbelief, "It's still snowing."

"Oh, I know. But I've gotta go get a few things for dinner tomorrow. Joey, Gracie, your mommy's in the kitchen taking out some cookies from the oven, why don't you go get some?" Edith suggested as she pinned her hat into place.

"Ok." And then they were gone.

"Bye!" Edith kissed her husband quickly before heading for the door, but Archie stopped her as he got up from his seat.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, Edith." Archie started, "Just a few hours ago, you said we had everything for that there dinner. We saved some good money on dat!"

Edith shook her head, "That was before when it was just dinner for the two of us." She then opened the door but kept her attention on her husband, "Now we're having dinner for the six of us."

"Better make that seven." A voice from behind the door said.

Edith opened the door fully to reveal Stephanie standing with her luggage surrounding her. She smiled back at her aunt and uncle whose faces showed shock.

"Stephy!" Edith exclaimed pulling the young girl into the house.

"What are youse doing here?" Archie asked the young girl, "Ain't youse supposed to be off in deer manhoover country?"

Stephanie stared at her uncle.

"That's right Stephy, youse was suppose to be there two hours ago." Edith said looking at her watch.

Stephanie shook her head, "We never got out of Queens."

"What?" the two asked bewildered

"Yup." She said taking off her jacket, "You see when we were on our way to the airport Jenny's mom thought she left the iron on, so we had to turn around to go check. It was on; but she turned it off and we set off for the airport again, only this time we were five minutes away from the airport and then Daphne, Jenny's sister, realized she forgot her dad's Christmas present."

Archie rolled his eyes as Edith frowned but tried to follow along with the story.

"We came back here and looked all over for the present and couldn't find it! Well it turns out we couldn't find it because it was in the bottom of the bag that had all the extra jackets were." Stephanie continued, "By the time we got to the airport our plane had left and because of the snow no other planes were being allowed to leave."

"That's the family youse trusted our kid with?" Archie questioned

"They took good care of me, Uncle Archie. And I was gonna wait till tomorrow morning and come surprise you but then Mrs. O'Brien started giving out orders for cleaning."

Archie chuckled while his wife shook her head a bit disapprovingly but it quickly faded as she threw her arms around Stephanie once again, "Oh I'm just so happy your home for Christmas! It looks like this is gonna a family filled Christmas after all!"

"Whoop dee doo." Archie said sarcastically as he took a seat in his chair.

"Stephy, I was just leaving for the store to pick up a few things. Would you like to come with me?" asked Edith.

"Sure." She replied not minding that she had to put on all her winter clothes all over again.

"Great, I'll see if Gloria wants to go. Gloria!"

Seconds later Gloria emerged from the kitchen with her two children following behind, all three of them carrying a cookie.

"Yeah Ma? Oh hey Stephy, why aren't you off skiing?"

"Cause she went with a family that wouldn't be able to find their house, if their name wasn't on their mailbox." Archie answered for her earning him a Light hit.

"Gloria, Stephy's coming with me to the store, are you sure you don't wanna come?"

Gloria thought for a few seconds, "You know what Ma I think I will go." She announced before walking over to the coat rack.

"Oh good!" Edith exclaimed, "It'll be a girls shopping trip!"

Gloria smiled, "Yeah, but I don't wanna take Gracie and risk her getting sick." She told her mother who nodded.

Meanwhile the men sat in the two nearby chairs, listening to the conversation, not liking the part that seemed to say the kids would be left in their care.

"Wait a minute Gloria…" Mike began.

"We'll be back!" Edith shouted before stepping out of the house, followed by Stephy.

"Be good for Daddy and Grandpa!" Gloria told the kids.

"Stop her, stop her!" Archie demanded.

"Gloria I…" was all Mike managed to get out before his wife closed the door.

Archie frowned at his son-in-law, "Do youse know how pathetic you are?"

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ There you go! Chapter 4 of "Home for the Holidays" Hope you liked!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have a nice day, and remember only 5 more days till Christmas!_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing._

_**Author's Note: **__Hello everyone! How are you? Hope you're doing well! Enjoying the holiday season? Getting ready for tomorrow? Hope so! Gonna make this short today but I just wanted to say thank you all so very much for the wonderful support and wonderful reviews that you all have left on this story. I'm so very happy you all are enjoying it. There are still a few more chapters, didn't get to finish it before Christmas and so the new goal is to have it done by the end of the month. Sound good? Also I want to wish you all a early very Merry Christmas and Happy, Happy holiday! Thanks for everything1 Hope you enjoy this chapter, please review if you can, hope you like and please, Enjoy!_

* * *

'Twas the night before Christmas and though the story says no creature should be stirring, The Bunkers followed another story. Edith Bunker made her way down the stairs in search of her husband, it was almost midnight and he was missing from their bed. It didn't take long for her to find him; he was sitting in his chair with the TV on, not too loud though after all their niece was camping out on the pink sofa.

"Archie?" Edith called wanting to know if he was still awake.

He looked over at her slowly, "Oh hiya Edith."

"Is something wrong?" she asked a hint of worry in her voice, "Is Stephy feeling ok?"

"I don't know, if she's feeling ok, but her snoring could be heard by deaf man." Archie said and as if on cue Stephy let out a loud snore and Edith stifled her laugh as she took a seat in her chair beside her husband.

"What are you doing?" she asked curiously

"Thinkin'"

"About what?" she asked softly curious as to what was going on in her husband's head.

"About if it's too late for the two of us to get some tickets for a Christmas cruise." Archie said while still deep in his thoughts.

"Oh Arrrchie." Edith replied while frowning, breaking Archie from his thoughts.

"Don't go 'Oh Arrrchie-ing' me." Archie began, "Youse was enjoying it too! Having the house to ourselves, getting ready to spend Christmas with just the two of us. And then the kids gotta all come and ruin Christmas for us!"

"Oh Archie, kids don't ruin Christmas." Archie mumbled to himself but his wife continued, "Besides, I know you love having kids around during the holidays. I remember the first year Gloria didn't wake us up early to open the presents, youse was the one who jumped on her bed to tell her to come downstairs." She said smiling away and Archie smirked.

"Yeah well, it was after nine, didn't want our daughter acting like a wino." He explained.

Edith continued to smile as she looked at her husband and then at her niece, "Wasn't it nice of Stephy to stay down here tonight so Gloria, Mike, and the kids could stay in her room, so we could all celebrate early?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe we should go upstairs, so we won't wake her." Edith said getting ready to get up from her seat.

"Ah the only thing that'll wake this kid up is if we talk about what we got her for Christmas." Archie stated and just after the young girl squirmed under the covers, Archie raised his eyebrow. "You know how all we bought her was socks and some books for school."

"What?!" Stephanie exclaimed sitting straight up throwing the covers off herself.

Edith looked over at Stephy, looking a bit surprised, "Stephy was you awake this whole time?"

"Yeah." She answered before explaining, "But it wasn't my fault. Someone had the _Three Stooges_ playing too loud."

Archie glared at Stephanie, "Hey don't mock them guys. They're funny there! I wouldn't mind waking up to them three guys' faces."

This time it was Stephanie's to raise her eyebrows and Archie saw, soon figured out why her face showed that expression.

"Shut up youse!" he said pointing at her.

"Stephy, maybe youse should go back to sleep." Edith suggested.

"But I'm not tired. Can't we open our presents instead?"

"Oh no. The rest of the family's still asleep."

Stephanie was not giving up, "But I'm awake, and you two are awake, and Gloria's awake."

Both Archie and Edith looked at each other confused and the turned their heads to the staircase, where they saw Gloria making her way down to the presents.

"Hi." She greeted before struggling for an explanation, "I was um…you see…um…I couldn't sleep."

"Yeah, and I voted for Ford." Archie scoffed as his daughter made her way to the sitting area.

"What's the matter with you Scrooge?" she asked taking a seat beside her cousin.

"Who's she calling Scrooge?" Archie asked his wife, "I was up first on this here Christmas."

"It's not Christmas yet." Gloria simply replied

"It ain't?"

"Oh no Archie it's only eleven forty-five."

"Ah well," Archie began "I was still up before the four of youse."

The three women smiled, just then the eldest of the three's smile grew even more.

"Since we're already up why don't I go make some hot cocoa and bring it out here?" Edith suggested.

"That's sounds great Ma."

"Yeah, Aunt Edith do you need any help?"

"Sure." Edith happily replied as she got up from her chair and headed for the kitchen with Stephanie behind her.

"I don't want no hot cocoa. Bring me a beer Edith." Archie demanded

"Oh no Archie, it's too late now."

"So? It's gotta be four o'clock somewhere." Archie called to his wife.

"But not here." Came her reply before disappearing behind the door.

"At least make the cocoa Irish then huh?" he called after her before groaning to himself. Gloria then decided to take a seat on her father lap. "Jeeze, this here is how I'm gonna die." Archie told her but she just smiled.

"Are you gonna dress up as Santa again this year Daddy?"

"No."

"Why not?" she asked completely shocked

"Cause, youse remember what happened last year?"

"Yeah." She said smiling, "Joey was so happy and excited to see Santa sitting in his grandpa's chair."

"Yeah, and what about the other one?" Archie asked before hearing his daughter sigh.

"Gracie spit up on your beard."

"See, that there incident, ruined the beard and now I can't dress up like that no more."

"That's why we bought you a new one for Christmas." Gloria told him smiling away.

"That's all youse got me?!"

Gloria looked at her father with fake confusion, "You wanted something else?"

Archie's glared deepened, "Go sit over there!" he instructed pointing over to the couch. Gloria did as she was told but not before stealing the remote from her father.

After flipping the channels several times Gloria gave up and turned the TV off just as Stephanie and Edith reentered the living room with mugs in their hands.

"Here we are!" Edith said handing Archie a mug; he just however placed it on the table between them.

As Gloria took the mug from Stephanie she shared her thoughts with her family, "Gee I'm surprised Michael hasn't…"

"I smell hot cocoa." A familiar voice said from the stair way, the four turned around to see Mike standing in his pajamas.

"Never mind." Gloria simply said.

Edith smiled, "Would you like some hot cocoa, Mike?"

"Ma, how long have you known me?" he asked in a jokingly matter, and Edith released a small laugh before heading off to the kitchen once again. Mike sat down on the sofa with the two women sitting closer to his wife. He moved his arm behind her as she moved her mug close to his lips so he could take a sip.

Archie watched them for as long as he could, before giving an eye roll, "Jeeze, this must be why they don't give chimpanzoo's cocoa."

Gloria blew a raspberry at her father just as her mother entered the room.

"Do you see your daughter here?" he asked pointing at the blonde, "She's been doing that ever since we left her with your brother for the weekend!"

Edith smiled as she shook her head and handed Mike a mug while holding something behind her back. "Gloria, look who I found!" she said before pulling out a Christmas mug from behind her back.

Gloria's eye became wide as she gasped, "Snowy!"

"Yeah." Edith said happily handing her the mug.

"Oh Daddy look, it's Snowy!" she showed her father the mug that had a smiling snowman on it.

"Yeah." Archie said smirking.

"Who's Snowy?" Mike asked his wife.

"This mug," Gloria began, "is a mug Ma and Daddy gave me for Christmas when I was seven years old. It was my favorite present that year."

"Really?" Stephanie asked in disbelief

Gloria nodded smiling as her father answered for her.

"Sure cause back then kids appreciated the simpler things." His niece simply rolled her eyes.

Edith then began to tell the story behind the mug, "Oh my, I remember when we gave it to you, Gloria. Youse was so excited. You see Gloria had been noticing Archie bringing me coffee, and the two of us drinking it together, and Gloria wanted to be part of it. Course we wasn't gonna let her drink coffee while she was still a little girl. So we bought her, her own Christmas mug so she could drink hot chocolate in."

Everyone now seemed to have a smile. Edith looked over at her daughter and became misty eyed, "Oh Gloria. You've grownup so much."

"Ah jeeze Edith, don't start bawling now…"

"Oh I ain't." Edith said with a squeak in her voice, "I was just thinking of how small she used to be…oh and her first Christmas. I'll never forget it. We was living in our apartment on Union Street and it was decorated so beautiful considering how much money we had." She reminded them "Gloria and me was having such a good time baking cookies in the kitchen. And then Archie came home…"

"Yeah, that's usually how it goes Ma." Mike said jokingly.

However, Edith continued her story not noticing her husband's frown at Mike, "He came home with some big news…"

_Christmas Eve 1951: Union Street_

"Edith, I'm home." Archie called as he walked through the door placing his lunch pail on the table hanging his coat and hat as well.

"In the kitchen Archie!" Came Edith's voice and Archie walked to where the sound was coming from.

When he walked into the kitchen he found Edith and Gloria, in her highchair, surrounded by plates of cookies.

"Jeeze I thought Santa's workshop made toys not cookies." Archie said causing Edith to turn around.

"Hello Archie!" she greeted before kissing him and then walked over to little Gloria, carefully taking her out of the highchair and over to her father.

"Look Gloria, Daddy's home." Edith said cheerfully and Gloria as well as Archie smiled.

"Hi there little goil." Archie greeted his daughter as he slowly put her in his arms. "You been a good girl for your Mommy here?"

"Oh yeah." Edith smiled as she took yet another batch of cookies out of the oven, "She's been test tasting the cookies for me."

Archie smiled, "Oh yeah? How they tasting?" he asked his daughter.

Gloria smiled as she put a cookie in her fathers' mouth. Her parents shared a laugh

"Oh my Archie, I can't wait for tomorrow morning.' Edith said smiling and Archie's smile shrunk some.

"Yeah about that Edith…" Archie began

"It's gonna be so fun!" Edith continued not hearing her husband.

"Edith…"

"Helping Gloria open her presents and then taking her to church and then over to the family and then over to yours.' She said her smile only becoming bigger and bigger. "We've got a busy day tomorrow." She told her daughter in a baby talk tone.

"Yeah well youse do that, I'll be at work." Archie said and right away Edith looked over at him shock covering her face.

"What?" she said in a hurt tone of voice.

"Now Edith, I'm only working for you and Gloria." Archie said hoping his wife would understand.

"But Archie," she said with disappointment in both her voice and face, "You're gonna miss Gloria's first Christmas?" she questioned still not wanting to believe her ears.

"Yeah, but don't worry she ain't gonna remember, it's her first not her first hundred." Archie said but Edith was still upset.

"Archie, you mean you ain't gonna help Gloria open her presents?" she asked but before Archie could answer she went on, "You ain't gonna go to church with us? Or to the families houses to celebrate Christmas?" she went on still not lightening up.

"Now Edith, I swear that one was just a plus! It never even crossed my mind." He said after putting Gloria back in her high chair.

"Archie…" she began to protest but Archie interrupted.

"Come on Edith don't get riled up now. The kid ain't even gonna remember this here Christmas." Archie proclaimed.

"But I will." Edith said both sad and upset.

"Oh come on Edith, think about it. I work this Christmas, I'll never have to another one again." He said but in truth that was a promise he wasn't sure he could keep. Edith looked over at her husband.

"Ok." She sighed and then got out of her seat and took Gloria out of her highchair, "I'll go put Gloria to bed and then we can have our dinner." She said before heading towards their bedroom, Archie watched her leave and knew his wife was not happy. He then put his head against his hand with his elbow propped on the table.

0o0o0o

"Daddy, you missed my first Christmas?!" Gloria asked loudly

"Course not!" Archie protested before sighing, "Edith I never thought I'd say this but…finish the story."

"Alright. Edith said smiling, "Well then Christmas morning came. I woke up so I could make breakfast for Archie before he left for work, but when I did he wasn't in the bed with me…"

0o0o0o

_Christmas 1951_

"Archie? Archie?" Edith called not finding Archie in bed, just an empty spot with its sheets showing he had once been sleeping there; Edith sat up and looked around the room.

"Merry Christmas sweetheart." Archie greeted as he walked into the room with two coffee cups in his hand.

Edith smiled, "Archie, you're up." She said happily and he frowned.

"Nah, I'm still sound asleep." He said sarcastically and Edith smiled.

Archie then smiled erasing his frown, he placed the two mugs on the night stand and climbed into bed gathering his wife in his arms, she giggled

"Archie, what are you doing? Don't you gotta go get ready for work?" she asked but didn't try to break the embrace.

"Now whatever gave you that idea?" he asked a bit upset.

"You did, you said…" Edith started to tell him but Archie interrupted her.

"Listen Edith, the only thing I gotta do today is, spend Christmas with my two favorite girls."

"Ooohhh Arrrchie!" she said as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. The kiss lasted for quite awhile and finally when it was over they relaxed in the embrace.

"Merry Christmas Archie." Edith said softly

"Merry Christmas Edith." Archie responded with.

They sat there in the night clothes for awhile neither saying a word; simply because nothing had to be said.

"Maybe we should wake Gloria up and take her to open her presents." Edith suggested.

"Nah let her sleep." Archie said and then turned over to the nightstand, retrieving the two coffee mugs.

"Let's just stay here huh?" he stated more than questioned while handing her a mug.

She gladly took it from him and took a sip, Archie did the same.

Edith smiled, "Thank you Archie, the coffee is so delicious!" she complimented him and he shrugged.

"What can I say I make one heck of a pot of coffee."

Edith smiled and then once again relaxed in her husband's arms.

0o0o0o

"Aww!" both women said at the same time as Michael smiled.

"That was the year our Christmas tradition first began." Edith informed them, "Course we was married the year before, but I was carrying you Gloria and couldn't have no coffee."

Stephanie frowned as she heard her aunt's words. "So since you two have been married, you've only had one Christmas alone?"

The couple looked at each other.

"Didn't youse hear? She was expecting Gloria, who kicked more than a karate kid." Archie said aloud

Edith smiled, "You know Gloria that was when you took your first steps all by yourself."

Gloria smiled proudly as if she'd just done it.

"I remember that." Archie began "Jeeze, your mother almost had a heart attack when she saw youse standing by yourself."

Edith continued to smile, "You had just woken up and we was in the living room opening presents…"

_Christmas 1951_

After they had opened all of the gifts, Archie and Edith sat on the couch watching little eight month old Gloria began to play with her new toys. Seeing that she was occupied, Archie and Edith took the time to discuss the days plans when looking at their daughter they noticed she was not where they had last seen her instead she was on her feet only a few steps away from them.

"Oh Gloria!" Edith exclaimed getting ready to jump to her feet and over to their daughter, but Archie placed his hand on her arm holding her back, "Wait a second Edith. Give her a minute." He instructed her and then talked to Baby Gloria.

"Come on Gloria, you can do it."

Gloria as if understanding smiled a large smile and gave a small giggle as her parents sat at the edge of their seats both with amazement covering the faces.

She stood in the same spot for quite awhile but then she slowly moved her left foot forward and her right. Their little girl had taken her first steps, by herself.

She took four more steps before loosing her balance and landing on her bottom. Instead of crying though the little girl giggled and clapped her hands. And though she didn't make it all the way to where her parents were they still saw her as a winner.

Feeling her husband move his arm, Edith ran to the small girl and scooped her into her arms carrying her over to the couch, so that they could be sitting altogether.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__And there you go! Chapter 5 of "Home for the Holidays" Hope you liked!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have a nice day, and remember tomorrow is Christmas, hope it's a wonderful one for you and yours! _


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hello All! How are you? Hope you're doing well and that you had a magical, fun filled holiday! Today I have a new chapter for this story and I apologize again for not being able to complete it by Christmas, but still shooting for the 31st! Also thank you so much for all the wonderful support and words of encouragement. Especially to Marla's Lost and KayEn78 who was kind enough to point out some errors in the last one, I apologize for those once again. I hope you enjoy this chapter, feel free to leave a review if you can, hope you like, and please, Enjoy! _

* * *

"Oh Gloria, you made us so proud and happy!" Edith told her daughter smiling away.

"Yeah," Archie agreed smirking at the memory, "Youse shoulda seen your mothers' family when we told 'em. They was acting like youse was a banana and they was a bunch of caged monkeys." He paused, "Course that's what they were."

Edith shook her head at her husband before adding more details, "Everyone was fussing over you Gloria, your father and me spent the whole night together on the porch."

"Yeah." Archie smiled at the memory.

Edith looked over at her husband, "I guess that sorta counts as a Christmas with just the two of us."

"Christmas with just the two of us." Mike repeated and then turned to Gloria, "Does that sound familiar?"

Gloria gave a small laugh, "One of my great mistakes."

"Sure cause you're sitting next to the greatest." Archie pointed out.

The couple showed heir dislike for Archie's comment by their facial expressions of frowns and eye rolls however they said nothing and instead went on with telling their story.

"It was the year we moved into our house and I was pregnant with Joey…"Gloria began only to be interrupted with her father's grunting.

"Jeeze, didn't youse just hear the two of us using the nice delicate words of expecting, then youse go on and use that word."

"Oh Daddy, you're such a prude."

"I am not! I ain't eaten one of them in years."

Mike dropped his head down as Gloria sighed shaking her head. "_Anyways_ it was the year we moved into our house and I was _excepting _Joey…"

"Oh wait I remember that, it was just a little before Joey was born…but the two of youse celebrated that Christmas with us here." Edith pointed out.

"Well yeah, we did because our original plan failed." Mike informed their audience.

"Miserably." Gloria added, "It was two days before Christmas and Michael came downstairs to the living room where I was sitting watching TV…"

0o0o0o

_1975_

Mike Stivic quickly made his way to where his wife was sitting and took a seat beside her, "Gloria, guess what."

"What?" she asked smiling

Mike's smile grew, "We have our own house!"

"I know!" his wife squealed.

"That means we can do anything we want!" he said happily.

"I know!"

"We don't have to tell anyone anything!"

"I know!"

"We don't have to sneak in or out of the house!"

"I know!"

"We can celebrate Christmas here with just the two of us!"

"I…no!" Gloria exclaimed now frowning

"Why not?"

Gloria sighed, "Honey that sounds great, really, but think about Ma and Daddy."

"I am." Mike stated with a smile before going on, "I'm thinking it'll be so great to spend one Christmas without arguing with your father, over how eggnog is made."

His wife rolled her eyes, "Michael, you're just thinking about Daddy, don't forget about Ma. You know how much trouble she goes through for Christmas; it's one of her favorite holidays."

It was Mike's turn to sigh, "Yeah…hey I know! Since we're just going for dinner, we can spend the rest of the day here."

"But Michael…"

"Hear me out Gloria, we spend Christmas morning and afternoon here with just the two of us. We'll open our presents and have our own little Christmas lunch." Gloria smiled as she listened to her husband's words, "And if your parents ask what took us so long, we'll say you weren't feeling well because of the baby."

Gloria looked at her husband with shock while also frowning, "You want to use our child as an excuse for being late?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah."

Gloria shrugged, "Well that's one thing kids are always good for."

"_Of course things didn't exactly go as planned."_

It was Christmas morning and the young couple was peacefully sleeping in their bed. Gloria suddenly woke up, she looked at the time it was still early but still she decided to wake her husband "Michael, Michael." She called as she leaned against him.

"Ok I'm up, I'm up." Mike said sitting up but still looking half asleep he out on his shoes and grabbed his robe. "I'll just go to the store and get it…"he said to himself as he left the bedroom.

Gloria watched from the bed looking quite confused, seconds later the door opened and Mike stuck his head in, "What was it you wanted again?"

"Merry Christmas." She said with a smile.

"Right." And the door closed once again only to be reopened seconds later by Mike who now looked fully awake. He walked back to the bed and kissed his wife, "Merry Christmas." He told her before climbing back into bed.

"So, what do we do first for the Christmas with just the two of us?" Gloria questioned as moved her husband's arms around her.

"Well I guess first we should open our gifts and maybe have our Christmas lunch." Gloria's eyes became wide at this but Mike didn't notice and just asked,. "What are you making for us?'

Gloria bit her lip as she struggled to tell her husband news that could ruin their perfect Christmas.

"Fruity Pebbles?" Mike asked in disbelief.

The couple had gone down to the kitchen, where Gloria had just placed the box of the night's meal in front of her husband.

"I'm sorry Michael," she apologized, "it's just I haven't had time to go to the grocery store. And whenever I do have the time, I just feel too tired to go."

Mike looked over at his wife, "Honey, that's why you should have told me to go. If you can't do something then I can do it for you."

Gloria's eyes showed hurt as she met her husband's, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Huh?"

"That, what you said." She said now on the verge of tears, "You said I can't do. You think I can't do anything, don't you?"

"No Gloria that's not what I said…"

"Yes it is. You think I'm fat and lazy and can't do anything, not even go to the store!" she said now crying, Mike rushed to her and took her in his arms.

"Gloria, Honey, no I don't. I promise, I just thought I should go to the store because I'm not helping you out enough." Gloria's crying subsided as she heard his words of assurance, "Come on lets go open some gifts huh?"

"Ok." Gloria said happily annd back to her normal self, before waddling off to the living room.

"Here Honey, you sit down." Mike instructed as he helped her into the green chair, "This one's for you, Merry Christmas." He kissed her.

"Aw thank you Michael, yours is over on the left side of the tree."

Mike began to search for his present as Gloria shook her gift. "Um, honey it's not here."

"What?"

"It's not here I checked all over the tree. I don't see a gift for me from you." He informed her.

"Michael that's impossible I got it for you last week…" Gloria began as she tried to get out of the chair. Mike seeing her struggle helped her onto her feet. "I know I put it down here…" she said as she carefully knelt down to take a look at the presents. "Let's see, here's the one we're giving Ma, and the one for Daddy." She paused as she read the name tag, "That's the one for your co-worker. Oh and here's one for Daddy from Ma…uh-o."

"What?" Mike asked puzzled.

"Well you see honey, Ma and I went shopping for yours and Daddy's gifts together. We bought them at the same store and everything and…"Gloria hesitated.

"Gloria, just tell me, nothing could be worse than finding out that you bought my gift at the same store where Archie's gift was bought." Mike reassured

"You're present's at Ma and Daddy's."

Mike looked at his wife in disbelief, "What? How?"

"Well, Ma saw me holding a lot of the bags and she said it wasn't good for the baby." Gloria explained, "So we put the presents all in her bag and then spilt them up when we got home. I must have gotten Daddy's by mistake. I'm sorry." She said close to tears.

"Ah that's ok honey; I'll open mine when we go eat over there. Why don't you open you gift?" he suggested.

"Ok." Gloria said before sitting back down and slowly opening the rectangular box. "Oh Michael it's beautiful!" she exclaimed before taking the blue dress out of its box.

"You really like it?"

"Oh of course I do! Thank you!" she said before kissing him quickly, "Just look at it, it's such a pretty color, it's the perfect length, it's so beautiful it's…a size bigger than my normal dress size."

"Oh yea," Mike said fully aware of it, "I figured you'd wanna wear it right away, so I bought it in a bigger size so you can wear it right after the baby's born."

Gloria stared at her husband, "You don't think I'm gonna loose this weight?"

"Of course I do, but I know how hard it might be and I wanted you…"

"No you don't." she said tears once again forming in her eyes, "You think I'm so fat, it'll take me forever to loose this weight and I'll never go back to the way I was before! I'll never do any of the things I used to do, because I'm so lazy, and I can't even go to the store to get groceries for my husband!" she cried.

Mike tried to stop her, but it was no use, after struggling for several minutes she finally released herself from the chair and ran upstairs crying.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__And there you have it, Chapter 6 of "Home for the Holidays" Hope you liked!_

_Not sure if this flashback fit in correctly. Keep in mind I wasn't around in 1976 but I do remember it being mention that the episode of Joey's birth took place in either January or December thinking December though since there was that New Years Wedding episode that followed…right? Rarely watch that one, Love Billy Crystal but miss Archie and Edith. Anywoo sorry if it doesn't fit but it might…I'm not sure. But I hope you liked it!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care and remember only 362 days till Christmas!_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hello all! How are you? Hope you're doing well! Today I have for you another chapter for "Home for the Holidays" and I hope you enjoy it! We're almost at the end! Thanks so much for all the wonderful and extremely kind support that you all have given me of this story, it truly means so much! In this chapter there's some talk about religion and while I don't like to get into that kind of stuff in my writing when doing AITF stories its bound to come up at some point. I hope that I don't offend anyone or anything like that. This isn't me, it's Archie and well don't wanna give anything away but be sure to read all the way to the end of the chapter. Thanks again for everything. It truly means a lot. please review if you can. Hope you like, thanks for reading and please, Enjoy!_

* * *

"She cried in the bathroom for the rest of the day." Mike shared

"No I didn't." his wife argued, "I stopped crying when I did my make-up."

"That's what youse get, trying to spend Christmas with no one else." Stated Archie, "Most selfish ridiculous thing I ever heard."

Edith looked at her husband confused, "But Archie, that's what youse wanted to do this Christmas."

The three looked at the older couple and saw Archie glare at his wife, "That ain't nothing like I wanted to do…"

Edith thought for a few seconds, "Oh yeah, that's true. Youse wanted to skip Christmas."

Now all three of the couch's occupants were shocked. Archie Bunker wanted to skip Christmas?

"What?" asked Mike, his face breaking out into a grin.

While Gloria called out, "Daddy!"

"You wanted to skip Christmas?" Stephanie asked the question on all of their minds.

Archie removed his hand that he'd been running over his face, from his forehead and looked at his niece, "Hey youse wanted to trade Santa Claus in for a spinning top."

Stephanie became silent as her cousin spoke, "I remember that, it was the year we moved back from California, right?"

"Yeah." Edith answered, "Oh Stephy do youse remember the look on your Uncle Archie's face when you told him you wanted to celebrate Hanukah?" she asked before laughing until she caught the glare of her husband.

Stephanie smiled, "Yeah, who could forget? I remember we having dinner and you were making out your Christmas list…"

_0o0o0o_

_December 1981_

Archie, Edith, and Stephy were sitting at the round table in their condo in California. As they ate their meal, Edith wrote down information on a nearby notepad.

She looked up from her writting and smiled at her niece, "Stephy, what do you want for Christmas?"

"Hanukah." The young girl replied confusing the two adults.

"What the hell is that? Another deaf creating band?" her uncle asked.

Stephanie shook her head, "No the holiday."

Edith became surprised as she realized what her niece was saying while her husband still seemed confused, "Don't be ridiculous Santa Claus don't bring no holidays 'cept Christmas…it's parta his contract."

"I wanna celebrate Hanukah."

"Why?" Archie asked as if she'd just asked for a thousand dollars.

"Because I'm part Jewish and I used to celebrate it."

"Yeah,_ part_ and _used to_ are the main words in there." Archie pointed out earning him an eye roll.

"Stephy, are you sure you wanna celebrate Hanukah this year?" Edith asked, "You've been celebrating Christmas with us for the past two years."

Stephanie nodded her head, "I know, but I was talking to Sarah and she was telling me all about her Hanukah traditions and it made me miss mine."

Archie gave a Bronx cheer before speaking, "To Hanukah traditions. Youse know what kinda traditions they have? They leave the fireplaces on sos Santa can roast his end and know to stay away!"

Both women frowned with disapproval, "Don't look at me like that it's true! I don't know why youse wanna celebrate that holiday anyways….don't youse know it's one of the most dangerous holidays?"

"What?"

"Yes! Just look at all them things that whadaya call symbolize it." Archie began, "First youse got the drables, which if youse spin too hard it'll fly off the floor and right into your eye. Then there's the latkeys that tongue twisters enough to put youse in the hospital. Hey even the most important part is the most dangerous…."

Edith looked at her husband with confusion, "The Star of David?"

Archie's face dropped, "Finish your dinner sweetheart." He instructed before going back to his lecture. "The mehorah. Them candles on that thing have gotta stay on the whole time. Youse could go to bed one night and wake up to your house burned down and nothing left but that damn thing."

Stephanie just stared at her uncle as he stared back with wide eyes, as they did so the newly moved in family from next-door entered the living room.

"Hi Ma." Both Mike and Gloria said as they and Joey came in.

"Oh hi." Edith greeted moving her attention from the staring contest happening before her to the family that just entered, "Would you like some meatloaf?"

"Oh no thanks ma, we just ate." Her daughter responded.

"Sure." Mike said taking a seat at the table before Edith left to the kitchen with a smile on her face. "What's going on here?"

"I wanna celebrate Hanukah this year." Stephanie explained.

"Oh that's right Stephy, you're part Jewish." Gloria stated as she placed her son on his feet.

"I think that's a great idea." Mike told her and Archie frowned.

"Youse think anything I think is a bad idea is a good idea." He argued, "If she said she was gonna go join the Hairy Knishes you'd be handing her the razor to shave off her hair there."

Just as Archie spoke those words Edith reentered the room with a plate full of the night's dinner on it. "Here you are, Mike." She said to her son-in-law and then turned to her niece, "Stephy, why don't you take Joey to your room so your Uncle Archie and me can talk about this."

"Ok." The young girl said as she got up from her seat, "Come on Joey." Was the last thing the four adults heard her say before she disappeared into the hallway.

Gloria looked at her father, "Daddy, I don't see what the big deal is. Stephy is part Jewish."

"Yeah but only part! A part she ain't paid attention to for two years, and now she wants to switch back like it was nothing!"

Gloria rolled her eyes, "You didn't make this big deal of when I told you I was questioning God."

Archie groaned as he remembered when newlywed Gloria had told him about her 'conversion', "Sure cause youse was grown and married, this one I can still ground!"

Wanting to bring the topic back to its original problem Mike spoke, "Arch, Stephanie's mother was Jewish, and she wanted her daughter to grow up the same way."

"That's true Archie," Edith said now understanding it all a bit more clearly, "We may think of Stephy as another daughter but we ain't the ones who can make them important decisions like this, especially since they've already been made."

"Yeah by a dead woman!" reminded Archie, "That there decision don't stand no more. We're the ones in charge now, we can chose any way to raise the kid and all a dead person can do is look down or in your case, " he said looking at Mike, "look up, shake their heads, maybe haunt youse for awhile or just roll over in the grave."

Edith frowned and shook her head as they young couple exchanged glances, just then Stephanie bounced into the room without Joey.

"So?" she asked as she moved closer to the table, "Can we celebrate Hanukah this year?"

Archie looked at his wife and shot her a look that seemed to say 'Tell her' but Edith lifted her chin and turned away leaving Archie to frown, "Fine I'll tell her! Rosemarie youse can celebrate Hanukah…"

"Really?!" she asked hopeful

"The day youse move outta here." Her uncle finished

Stephanie, obviously upset, frowned and stomped her feet all the way to her room; they knew she was in there because when the stomping stopped a loud slam was heard and the family looked over Archie.

0o0o0o

"You know I thought you were gonna run away." Gloria told her cousin who simply giggled

"Yeah we had the cot in Joey's room set up." Mike shared.

"I almost did go stay with Sarah." The young girl confessed, "I never would have guessed Uncle Archie would have planned what he did." She said before smirking at her uncle.

"Oh I knew." Edith said smiling away and despite Archie trying to get her to stifle she went on "Archie's a big softie when it comes to alotta things. He's just like an Oreo cookie."

The four stared at her thinking she would explain but she didn't.

"Never mind I don't wanna know." Archie shook his head.

0o0o0o

_Hanukah 1981_

"Stephy!" Edith called up to the second floor, "You better get going, Sarah and her family are expecting youse there soon!"

"I'm coming!" she hollered back and seconds later she was there, only when she came out of her room she was surprised to see the sight of Edith, Mike, Gloria with Joey in her arms and even her Uncle Archie standing at the table with a menorah and one lit candle on it.

"What's this?"

"Happy Hanukah!" Edith exclaimed before throwing her arms around the child.

Stephanie smiled as she hugged her aunt, "Thanks Aunt Edith!"

"Oh no, it wasn't me." She told her.

Stephanie looked at the young couple thinking it was the two of them but when they shook their heads, she knew there was only one person left, she looked over at Archie who raised his eyebrows to give her a surprised expression; but it was Stephy who surprised him by running to him and wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Jeeze, watch it." Archie groaned, "I gotta candle in my hands here."

Stephanie hung on to him until he finally slowly and softly pulled her away, "Here youse do the honor." He instructed handing her the candle.

Stephanie carefully grabbed it, and lit the candle on the farthest right saying a blessing she had remembered hearing when she was younger and her mother was still alive. It as also the same blessing Sarah's family had planned on saying which helped Stephanie's memory. When she finished everyone clapped and either cheered or commended the young girl on the beautiful words.

"Wait!" young Joey called out, "Stephy needs to blow them out!"

Everyone seemed to giggled, "No Joey." Gloria began "That's not what they candles are for."

"No cake?" he asked sadly

Edith smiled, "No but we do have latkes." Edith said smiling.

"Really?!" Stephanie asked a bit too quickly and excitedly

Archie stepped in to correct his wife, "Latkeys, Edith."

"Hey Ma I can't wait to try the latkes." Mike said grinning

"Why don't know one listen to me?" Archie asked himself.

No one heard Archie's question especially Stephy who was asking her aunt a question, "How did you learn to make latkes?"

"Oh I'd been practicing while you've been outta the house." She informed, "You see Archie and me called your father and asked him all about how youse used to celebrate Hanukah and he told us about them and about this…"

Mike then brought out a large box and Stephanie grinned from ear to ear, "Thank you!" she said happily, "I'm really happy to be celebrating Hanukah with all of you, with the menorah and the latkes and the presents…that only come one at a time and get worse as Hanukah comes to an end…and I have to wait a whole day to get the next one…there're only eight…" her smile had now disappeared she looked up at her 'parents' "Can we celebrate Christmas instead?"

As Archie looked at her not believing what he'd just heard Edith, Mike, Gloria and even Joey laughed at the situation.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__There you go! Chapter 7 of "Home for the Holidays" Hope you liked!_

_I hope you all have a Happy, Happy New Years! :D_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have nice day, have a wonderful New Years, and remember only 359 days till Christmas!_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hello everyone! How are you all? Hope you're doing well and your New Year started off with some great stuff! If not here's a little something to hopefully make things a little better. Its the second to last chapter of 'Home for the Holidays' and while I don't like to play favorites this one maybe my personal favorite. I know I didn't make it to finish on the 31st but I thought it would look nicer if the dates read published December 3 and updated January 3. Took a month to post it just like it had taken me a month to write when I first wrote it. Hope you don't mind! Thanks again to all of you wonderful readers and reviewers! KayEn78, Marla's Lost, and Alex B. Goode! You all are awesome! Hope you enjoy this chapter, please review if you can, thanks for reading, and as always please, Enjoy!_

* * *

And years later Archie still was the only one not laughing at the story.

"That was one of my Hanukah presents I'll never forget." Stephanie told her family

Mike smiled, "Yeah that was nice of you two, to plan that for Stephy."

Stephanie frowned and looked at Michael and then at the rest of the family, "Oh yeah, yeah that was great too but I was talking about the look on Uncle Archie's face. I was so glad to have gotten that camera so I could take a picture." She laughed and the others joined in.

Archie remained silent.

"It went something like this…" Gloria said before trying her hand at her father's facial expression of shock and anger. Everyone burst out laughing when they saw it.

"Shut up all of youse!" Archie declared and the laughing subsided.

"Oh, that was our first and only Hanukkah in his house and it was a wonderful one and even Christmas that year turned out to be a great one" Edith recalled happily, "But I think I've always enjoyed the Christmas's in the this house. We've had so many of them."

Gloria smiled, "Yeah. I still remember our first one here too."

Both her parents looked at her in surprise, "Really? Why you couldn't have been more then six years old."

Gloria shrugged, "I've got a good memory..."

Archie smirked, "Comes from my side of the family."

"And when you're father uses it as a reminder as to why we don't celebrate Christmas with the family for over ten years, the picture remains pretty clear." The blonde went on to explain.

"What happened?" Mike asked his curiosity showing.

"Well…" Gloria began but Archie interrupted

"Oh no!" he exclaimed, "I let one of youse tell it and all I get is the chocolate coded version." He told his wife and daughter and then turned back to the remaining family members, "This here is how it really went we had just had our coffee and Gloria jumped on the bed almost making us spill our coffee." He groaned

Gloria and Stephanie high five-ed each other.

"We was downstairs opening the presents…."

0o0o0o

_Christmas 1956-_

The small Bunker family were in their new living room, sitting by the tree still in their pajamas opening the presents. Gloria was hugging her new doll as Edith thanked her husband for her new watch with a kiss. Just then the doorbell rang.

The two exchanged looks. Who could be ringing the doorbell this early on Christmas morning? Edith stood up and walked to the door making sure her robe was on the tight and Gloria moved onto her father's lap.

"Daddy's who's at the door?" she asked with her doll in her arms.

Archie looked at her "I don't know maybe it's someone looking to see if we want any fruitcake."

Gloria smiled, she'd been there when Archie threw away the ones that had been sent to them She didn't mind though, she preferred chocolate cake. In a child like way she placed her doll's face next to her father's cheek and made a kissing sound.

Archie smiled, feeling like a kid himself, began tickling his little girl not hearing Edith gasp as she opened the door. He didn't stop his actions until he heard just two words from a voice that made him cringe.

"Maudey's here!"

"_Then she gave us the worst Christmas gift ever." Said Archie_

"Oh Maude what are you doing here?" Edith asked as she hugged her cousin

"I'm here to see you of course!" Maude said pulling away some, "It's been too long since we've seen each other."

Edith started to speak but Archie talked over her, "Yeah, what was it? A year?" he said sarcastically

Maude frowned as she looked at her cousin-in-law "Not long enough since I've seen you."

Archie shrugged as he walked over, "I can fix that. Just go on out this here door and don't come back till it has been long enough. How's fifty years?"

"If seeing Edith means seeing you, I'll deal with it." Maude said dryly before turning her attention to the little girl, "Oh look at you Gloria!" she said smiling.

"Jeeze don't scare the kid." Archie said to himself.

"Hi." Gloria greeted softly as she allowed the tall woman to carry her.

"You are just so beautiful. She takes after you Edith, thank God. Now when you leave Archie you can deny he's her father."

Edith frowned and shook her head as Archie finally asked the question that was on his mind.

"What are youse doing here Maude?"

"I've come to bring you a Christmas surprise!" she exclaimed telling Edith mostly.

"Oh what is it?" Edith asked excitedly.

"Well when I told the family that you had finally moved out of that old crummy apartment, they were all so excited they decided we should have Christmas here in your new house!"

"What?!" both Edith and Archie asked looking shocked; although Archie's face showed some anger too.

"We're celebrating Christmas here!" Maude said jovially.

"Oh Maude…"Edith struggled, "I…it sounds great really but…I don't know if I'll be able to make all that food for tonight." She said looking at her new watch for the time, "Oh and then there's the cleaning and…"

Archie took the chance to jump in, "And we gotta go visit my brother over in Connecticut!"

A confused Edith looked at her husband, "Archie you ain't talked to Fred since we got married."

Archie dropped his head down as Maude shook hers, "You're pathetic."

"Maude I know you musta thought this was a good idea but I just don't think I can do it on account of the short notice…"

"Edith, sweetheart," Maude began, taking her cousin's hands in hers, "don't worry we're doing this Christmas, potluck style!"

Edith's eyes became wide, "I ain't gonna be able to make enough food to fill everyone's pots."

Maude chuckled some as Archie rolled his eyes, from his seat in his chair, "Edith everyone is bringing a different type of food. You won't have to do anything!"

"Oh Maude." She said happily and then a thought entered her mind taking her away from her happiness, "I still gotta clean the house up a bit. It's the first time the family'll see it."

"Last time too, hopefully." Archie mumbled to himself and lucky neither woman heard him.

"Edith, the house looks wonderful and besides that's why I'm here. To help you with anything you need before everyone else gets here. But you've done a great job keeping it clean considering the slob you married." Maude said knowing Archie could hear her.

"Oh Maude please don't…"Edith began to beg not wanting a fight on Christmas morning.

"Alright, alright." Said Maude and then she remembered her bag. "Oh and I brought presents!"

"Oh Maude you didn't have to do that." Edith called after her as she went to her bag and pulled out three different sized boxes.

"Think nothing of it. After all I think you deserve something nice every so often." She said before handing her a gift and kissing her cheek. "Here you are Gloria." She said performing the same action with the young girl. She then walked over to Archie, "Here's one for you too Bozo." She stated tossing a small square box at Archie.

As he heard his wife thank Maude for a new dress and gush over the fact that Gloria's matched, Archie opened his gift to find a large piece of coal.

0o0o0o

Everyone but Archie laughed at the gift.

"I don't think I've ever met your Cousin Maude, Aunt Edith.' Stephanie said examining her now empty mug.

"Consider yourself lucky." Archie mumbled.

"Say Ma," Mike began "since Stephy's never met Maude maybe you should invite her over here sometime."

Archie glared at his son-in-law with a look that said "I'm gonna kill you."

"Oh sure you have Stephy," Edith reassured "She's a tall woman with…"

"With big feet and a big mouth to go with it. She could pass as Frankenstein's Bride." Archie told his niece who laughed some as Edith shook her head.

"Oh, Archie. Maude ain't that bad and that Christmas wasn't the worst neither."

0o0o0o

_Christmas_ _1956_

Edith Bunker was in her living room that was filled with all of her relatives, but someone was missing, she headed for the kitchen to see if he was there but instead she found her cousin Maude kissing her new husband.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Edith said embarrassed and the couple broke away.

"Oh don't worry Edith. You remember Albert. Husband number two, the one that's here to stay."

Edith nodded, "Hi Albert. Um Maude have you seen Archie?"

Maude looked at Edith with one raised eyebrow, "Edith I'm smiling and am in a good mood. Do you think I've seen Archie?"

"No…I guess not. Um you can go back to you kissing now." She said clearly embarrassed as she left the kitchen.

As she continued to look for her husband she found her daughter instead sitting with her Cousin Amelia and her husband Russell.

"Oh Edith she is adorable!" Amelia gushed as Edith walked closer to them.

"Thank you Amelia."

"And what a great gift Maude gave you matching dresses, you should get a family portrait in those dresses." Amelia went on

Edith smiled as she listened to her, but when she saw a figure sitting on the porch her mind drifted elsewhere. "Oh um that sounds like a wonderful idea Amelia, will you excuse me? I'll be right back." She said kissing the top of her daughters head quickly and then leaving outside.

When Edith walked onto her porch she found exactly who she was looking for. Archie was sitting on the wooden bench on the porch drinking something Edith didn't recall buying.

"Whatda you doing out here? It's so cold." She said breaking Archie from his daze

"I'm doing a science experiment. Trying to figure out where it's colder, out here or in there." He replied and she frowned some.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked surprising him a bit.

"Oh yeah, yeah come on over." He said scooting over and Edith took a seat beside him on the bench, "Where did you get that wine?" she asked.

Archie looked at the bottle, "Oh that guy Barney Hefner from across the street brought it over. Said it was a Christmas gift."

Edith smiled at the kindness, "Oh how nice, I hope you told him about his gift."

"Oh yeah." Archie nodded "Told him you'd bring it over tomorrow."

Edith smiled and nodded, "Good."

Archie took a sip of his drink, "Brought over his new dog too."

"Oh?" Edith asked, "Don't that make three now?"

"Yeah. But dogs make great pets you know. They're man's best friends, and I'm sure they're good whadaya call aquanites with women too. Only a grouchy old man can hate a dog."

"It's too bad we have Arthur." Edith said giving out the reason they didn't own a dog.

"Yeah." Archie agreed in a way that Edith could tell he exactly agreeing to what she was saying. He never did like that cat.

"Here." He said handing her a cup he'd poured some wine into.

"Oh thank you." She before taking the class "Cheers!"

Archie smiled as they clinked the glasses together before taking a sip from their drinks. As Archie stared into his glass he felt his wife snuggled against him, he then draped his arm around her shoulder and she sighed with happiness.

"We ain't done this since Gloria's first Christmas." She said aloud.

"Yeah."

"I wish you'd come inside, we're gonna open presents soon." Edith said looking up at her husband

"Oh no! Youse and Gloria are gonna be opening presents."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll gift something, after all Maude bought youse something."

"Yeah and what a handy item that was." Archie said deep in sarcasm.

"Gloria misses her daddy." She said knowing his soft spot for his little girl.

"Course she does, all them other people scare her. And since she found out she's related to them, she ascared she'll grow up to be like them."

"Does that mean you'll come in?" Edith asked hopefully.

Archie closed his eyes and sighed, "Alright, alright."

Edith kissed him on the cheek as part of her 'thank you' before they both got up and off their seats. As Archie started to follow his wife inside he stopped, "Hold it." He then walked back to the bench and grabbed the forgotten bottle of wine, "I'm gonna need this." Edith smiled as she shook her head.

"And if Maude mentions FDR one more time I'm hitting her over the head with a cookie platter." was the last thing Archie said before rejoining the party closing the front door behind them.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__And there you go, Chapter 8 of "Home for the Holidays" Hope you liked!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have a nice day, and remember only 357 days till Christmas!_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hi there everyone! Well we've finally come to the end of this holiday story! I apologize again for not having it finished sooner but I hope you all have still enjoyed these remaining chapters. Thank you all so much for all of the kind support, I'll be elaborating on this more at the end, I'm so glad you all liked the last chapter :). Sorry the chapter's a little short but hopefully it's still enjoyable. Please do review if you have the chance. Hope you like, thanks for reading and please, Enjoy!_

* * *

"And he almost did." Edith stated, "It was a good thing I put all the trays in the kitchen just before Maude said something."

Archie smirked with a hint of pride, as the other three laughed some.

"This is nice." Stephanie said aloud.

"It is." Gloria agreed as she shared a smile with her husband.

Edith smiled as well, "It seems like something out of an old Christmas movie."

"We should do this every year!" the young girl declared and the four seemed to agree so she decided to add to her statement, "Maybe adding some gift openings too?"

Both Edith and Gloria frowned at her while her uncle agreed with her, "I second that Rose Marie."

"It's already four in the morning." Gloria suddenly said in a surprised tone of voice.

"Wow, four o'clock in the morning looks a lot like three thirty in the morning." commented Stephanie earning her some questioning stares from both her aunt and uncle; she quickly tired to recover, "You know from the pictures I've seen in books."

It didn't satisfy them much but they decided to let it slide.

"You know, I'm surprised the kids aren't up yet." Mike said changing the subject, last year Joey had woken up at two in the morning but was told to go back to bed, he then waited another hour before waking his two year old sister who he knew was not easy to put back to sleep.

Archie ran his hand down his face, his tiredness obviously taking over him, "Yeah, well if they're anything like their mother, it won't take 'em long."

Gloria nodded, "I think Daddy's right. Maybe we should get some sleep before they wake up."

It didn't take much convincing to get the family to agree to those plans. Mike, Gloria, Archie, and Edith stood up from their seats and walked upstairs after saying goodnight to Stephanie who covered her head with the blanket as she laid on the couch. Once the couples had made it up the stairs, they quietly said their goodnights before silently entering their respected rooms.

Archie and Edith took off their robes in silence and climbed into bed. Not a second went by after Archie rested his head on his pillow, before Edith snuggled against him; he didn't complain though.

"See wasn't this nice?"

"Yeah." Archie replied sounding a bit drowsy.

"And we didn't even have to go nowheres." Edith continued.

"Yeah, I guess youse was right Edith. Kids don't ruin Christmas."

Edith gave another smile as she felt her husband wrap his arm around her, and then joined him in closing her eyes and trying to get some sleep. Just when the two were about to begin their winter's nap, a young childlike voice started screaming.

"It's Christmas!"

Then a little girl's voice was heard repeating the statement. Both Archie and Edith's eyes flew open as they heard their grandchildren in the other room.

"I take it back." Archie quickly said and Edith laughed as she looked up at her husband staying in the embrace. They hoped Gloria and Mike had the sense to send the kids back to bed but when their bedroom door came bursting open their hopes were dashed.

"It's Christmas!" Gracie yelled as she and Joey climbed onto their grandparents' bed

"Wake up Grandma! Wake up Grandpa!" Joey ordered as he and Gracie jumped up and down, just as they'd done on their parents' bed.

"Alright, Alright." Archie groggily said as he broke the hold he had o his wife.

"Why don't you two go and downstairs and wake Stephy, we'll be right there." Edith suggested as she sat up.

"Ok!" and then they were out the door, screaming their second cousin's name as they left.

Edith laughed some as she got out of bed and put on her robe, her husband however was taking his time. As she neared the doorframe Archie called her name causing her to turn around and see him sitting on his side of the bed putting on his robe.

"How about next year, we send them two away?" he suggested

Edith simply smiled before extending her hand to him, Archie grabbed it and the two walked out the door off to create a Christmas memory they hoped their family would retell some future Christmas Eve.

The End

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ And there you go the final chapter of "Home for the Holidays" I hope you liked!_

_Thank you all for all of your wonderfully awesome support, KayEn78, Marla's Lost, and Alex B. Goode. Without your wonderful words of support and encouragement this story would just be collecting dust, being brought out only during Christmas time for my own reading. I'm so glad that I could share it with you all and I'm even gladder that you all enjoyed it. Thank You!_

_I do have one more story that I'm thinking of posting up but it won't be until February or so and it's a shorter oneshot. Still gotta clean it up a bit too but I really am considering posting it up._

_Thanks for everything it truly means so much!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, take care, have a nice day and remember only 355 days till Christmas! _


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